Brown sauce tops bacon butty poll

Brown sauce tops bacon butty poll.

24 Hour Non-Stop Eatathon. Hey! This Is For Charity!

I’m willing to be a partner to somebody who wants to sponsor a fish eating contest.

I just had mackerel for breakfast, tuna salad for lunch and poached cod and veg for tea.

Who said this diet was hard work? And the bonus is that it is good for depression too!

 

Diary of a Recovering Fataholic. August 2014. Feeling Great.

Hello world. I had a real boost to my morale today. I was complimented in the most sincere and warm and friendly way possible. Let me tell you why;

When I began my journey shortly after the “witch doctor” forced me to “eat better or die” I had moments when I wasn’t altogether sure it was worth it. Okay the fitness was lower and the self-esteem was being pummeled by the mirror on a daily basis but over the whole of the next two years since 2012 I have had lots of highs and lots of lows. But today I was stopped in my tracks by a lovely lady I know as a client of mine. I was visiting the open plan office where she works and she sits with a colleague I also know well. Anyway, I was visiting somebody else onsite and the job required me to wear their polo shirt so I was wearing their brand. Thing was they gave me an XL shirt, not the normal XXXL I used to wear or the XXL I am down to now. I needed to visit the toilet to change and thought nothing of it. Having returned to the client and showing amazement that I actually fitted into the shirt they offered me.

Anyway after receiving the job brief I headed out of the door and was stopped in my tracks by this lady who was stunned by the change in my appearance. Her genuine warmth and curiosity about how I had physically changed so dramatically, to her mind, was incredibly touching and lifted my emotions enormously. I explained that it was mostly down to switching to fish. She thought this idea was brilliant as she liked fish and would give it a go. I hope she does and mentioned how I buy in bulk to get discounts and shop when there are offers on as well, all of which she took note of. Only the rich can afford to eat fish at RRP!

I was really happy when I walked away from her.

Thanks lovely lady for making me feel brilliant, and you don’t even know you’ve done it.

 

 

Diary of The Recovering Fataholic. July 2014

Today I am 104.3kg which is 229.94lbs (down from 232.3lbs)

I got fat slowly, if my memory serves me right. An extra piece of pizza here, a pause in the chair too long there and pound by pound the fat cells ballooned and multiplied. You have to eat more than you burn to gain weight, unless of course we’re talking weight lifting, and we’re not; it’s all fatty this and fatty that. I failed to fix it and that’s my fault. But whilst I was getting fat I was also busy working both ends of that candle and building my life so if I look back it’s got to be with a mixture of emotions. The journey up (in weight) was slow and inevitable considering my path.

As I slowly approach 50 I want to ensure the journey down is just as slow. I have been taking photos along the way…. like this one showing a recent low carb breakfast of bacon and courgettes (zucchini). The yellow courgettes/zucchini were grown in our garden by my wife and tasted very sweet and fresh. I cooked this breakfast using my new atomiser where you fill this plastic bottle with olive oil and pump the cap a few times. Then as you release the oil it atomises under pressure. Simple, ingenious and a fifth of the oil I was using previously. Believe it or not the glisten on the courgettes (zucchini) is a mixture of oil and water from my new “steam frying” cooking method.

Low Carb Breakfast – Bacon and Courgettes

My weight loss has slowed right down again this month but with food like this for breakfast it isn’t hard to cope. In fact this diet is unbelievably easy.

Eating low carb is just about cutting out the bad stuff anyway. Processed foods like cheese may be the reason why your version of low carb is different to mine. I see a lot of low carb recipes that contain cheese in one form or another. But I know from having punched in the data that consistent high fat food with low carbs is the wrong path for me.

 

 

I have to use low carb AND low fat combined. And this is where I start making sense to myself. The reverse is exactly how I got fat in the first place so the epiphany has to be that putting the combination that made me fat (sugar and fat together) in reverse is inevitably going to reverse the process.

So I am now recording carbs and fat in my FatSecret app and also recording my exercise. As long as I record a net imbalance of at least an average of -600 calories down per day across a 7-day period then I am satisfied.

Well let’s see how I am doing – with a before/after shot (from the back, I don’t want to scare anybody 🙂 )

This shows 2012 (127kg) vs 2014 (104kg). My own personal target is 88kg or “creaseless”, whichever comes first really, I don’t actually mind:

Recovering Fataholic – Back 2011

Recovering Fataholic – Back 2014

I think you can see that there is a definite difference. I still have creases that must be removed but the jogging, sit-ups and press-ups and climbing up and down my stairs lots of times is helping me keep my stamina up.

 

 

 

 

Slowly – is how I got to that one on the left. So slowly is how I plan to get to a normal weight. Also look at the way my legs are more underneath me on the right. This weight loss has helped with better posture too. That’s gotta be good for my overall health.

Sorry about the underwear. I needed to keep them the same for the record.

I use Facebook to find old friends and one such person is also a champion of health and fitness. The bloke is mad for running and whilst on the one hand makes me wildly jealous of his fantastic physical shape, he has also inspired me to get fitter and faster. I was just walking on the treadmill to begin with but since finding him and seeing his antics I began to think even an old git like me could regain some sense of normality – if only I got a bit faster. So I did.

Thank you Tony Williams.

Here is his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=789898473

 

Low Carb Diet Menu For A Day 08/06/2014

Well here it is. Today’s food intake. My goal is to be a normal person, eating normal food, in a normal way, not processed food that I cannot control and certainly not to be as extreme as the Atkins diet and stay down to 28g of net carbs. To be honest that involves way too much hard work. My own personal low carb regime is simpler, more honest and a lot easier to survive over a long term. I started 31/01/14 at 117.5kg and I am now 106.0kg. If you need a conversion tool try this one: Online Conversion

But even I need changes to my fantastically healthy diet so I thought I would experiment a bit with my food and see what happened when I introduced Blue Dragon Firm Silken Tofu.

Firm Silken Tofu from Healthy Supplies

I bought this one off the internet from a health food store but to be honest I could have bought it at any supermarket I reckon. I opened the packet, patted it dry because it is sopping wet, cut it into the mandatory cubes, chucked it into some olive oil to get crusty, (which took ages by the way), and proceeded to add stuff as I came across it in the fridge.

 

The meal was delicious. I added soy sauce for salty flavour and balanced that with the sweet chilli sauce (which if I had chosen not to would have halved the net carbs eaten). Toasting some sesame seeds while cooking the tofu gave it great depth and a lovely crunchy texture. It was still just like eating cooked blancmange but the way it soaks up the flavours around it means it is a great low carb option I can now admit I have tried it and will definitely be eating it again.

And the best bit is that unlike meat it definitely did not weigh on my stomach immediately after the meal. It is even lighter to eat than fish! The reason I did this meal plan and loaded it up here was to show you that unlike the books, you have a choice. You have the freedom to choose how you live. You do not need the things that are making you fat and unwilling to change. You can buy these ingredients at the market cheaper than the supermarket. Even Aldi is lying to you and lulling you into a false sense of what is cheap. You can put things in your fridge that are going to make you become thin if you follow my low carb regimen of eating fish for half your weekly meals and for the rest of the time you just PAY ATTENTION by recording it all into a food diary, (like FatSecret). You need to know I am nothing more than a “Recovering Fataholic” and I could so easily slip back into those bad eating habits that saw me escalate to 20 stone. The reason I don’t do that anymore is medical but the whole epiphany experience is one I recommend you all try to achieve.

Below I have loaded a pdf of the ingredients eaten along with all other food I ate today. I have to say I wasn’t overly hungry today because the two meals I ate were quite large in volume. I did a lot of physical work today and burned loads of calories which I must remember to add to FatSecret so I can see the “net calories” I used today.

I generally stay under my normal calorie limit because of this regime and it is working well for me because I can often find myself slipping into a shirt I hadn’t worn for 7 years or pull up a pair of jeans that I haven’t been able to pull up for longer than I remember. This is not about losing weight, I am talking about the shape changing that is occurring. And I gotta say that I am really enjoying the whole low carb diet diary experience of returning to my former glory, albeit very very slowly. Because this is exactly how I put it on, very very slowly.

Food Diary 08/06/14

 

Low Carb Dinner Recipe – Garlic & Ginger Chicken Salad

Low Carb Dinner Recipe – Garlic & Ginger Chicken Salad.

Diffculty rating – Easy Peasy.

1. Get a bag of supermarket salad. (Most come in at around 3-5 carbs per 100g).

2. Spoon 1 teaspoon ginger paste, 1 teaspoon of garlic puree and a sprinkle of a green herb (I used thyme tonight) into a large frying pan, sprinkle dried chillies over it and add about 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Heat to 3/4 heat setting until it’s really sizzling.

3. Add your prepared chicken meat, (use however much you fancy). Cook it with the spices until the chicken is quite golden crispy brown all over and the spices are just starting to stick to the pan. Take off the heat and mix it up to release it.

4. Get a bowl and dump the bag of salad into it. Then dump the chicken into it. Then get a fork and spoon and mix the salad for 5 minutes until fully mixed up.

5. Get two plates and serve. (Or more if you have the appetite of a sparrow).

I thought it tasted great. My wife enjoyed it too. I bet you will too. Here are the stats:

Fat: 38g – – Carbs: 7g – – Sugar: 0.2g – – Protein:40g – – Calories: 530

 

Diary of The Recovering Fataholic. May 2014. No2

This is the home of the random musings from the “Recovering Fataholic”.

I have turned a corner, had an epiphany, been bollocked by the doctor, call it what you want. The news she gave me while I was lying in a bed in A&E recovering from a pulmonary embolism frightened me into action. I was a 20 stone (126kg) mess and dying of liver disease.

I am following a low carb lifestyle because my doctor said that if I don’t, I will lose my liver and by default – my life. I reckon I kind of need that major organ, so I decided to follow her instructions. You can read the story that scared me on the other page above.

May is not a great month for me normally. So many birthdays among my relatives and I am always tempted by birthday cake. Hardly the best low carb food and a definite no-no as far as the doctor is concerned. She banned me from cake, bread, pasta, rice, cheese, alcohol, the list goes on. So I started this month at 106kg. And here we are at the 29th of the month and my weight today was 106.5kg.

So am I bothered? Well no not really. I got myself into this mess and I am getting myself out of this mess, one day at a time. Sure it’s May and my folks want to celebrate their old age, why wouldn’t they ? And who am I to rain on anybody’s parade? So I had a piece of birthday cake or more. But it was always one piece only and it was always the only bad thing I had that day. You see I am following what I call a “Pay Attention” diet. You can too it’s a doddle. And I will lose that last 0.5kg very soon and very easily.

Follow my blog and I will show you how you can do this too – through my postings. It’s not rocket science. You don’t need to be rich. But you do need to want it enough to do it. Not just pay lip service to it. Which is the biggest hurdle by far for you while you read this. I bet just talking about cake got you thinking about sweet things and here you are reading about being good and losing weight and all you can think about is cake. That’s the first hurdle. Stop that and you are on the first rung.

I use FatSecret to record what I eat and thus control the intake. This is the biggest single mistake you are all making when you start dieting for weight loss. Not knowing how much you really weigh and not recording what is being put into your mouth is what got you into the mess in the first place. Time to grow some faith in yourself and time to get started.

I don’t do anything special. I am not a member of a special gym or do much in the way of exercise to lose weight. I just take care of the food I eat now. You can do this too, it is so easy.

Low Carb Kippers

Try this: my doctor told me to begin by eating fish for half the week. Make that mean whatever you want it to mean. I took it to mean eating steamed/poached white fish with vegetables (I’m not allowed potatoes though) for tea. I have a hob-top steamer (old school) and boil the kettle to kick start it with some pre-heated water. In this I can put all my prepped veg and fish into one container and 20-30 mins later its food time. If I don’t fancy steaming or if it’s lunch at work I am looking for then I often put a can of tuna on top of a half a salad bag from the supermarket (top with a tablespoon of mayo or other low carb sauce) and for breakfast I am now well used to eating kippers or mackerel. I like it grilled to crisp it up but its up to you.

 

Adding my allowance of only 2 eggs per day to the kippers or chucking in a couple of basic mushrooms really mellows the flavour but open the windows!

Eating fish is easy but the biggest mistake you are about to make is to think fish fingers count. Listen very carefully to this – processed is banned. If it has been messed with so it doesn’t look like fish then it is not a food you should eat because you cannot control what additives are used in it. Fish in it’s natural form is cost effective for your health because it is so easy to digest, low in fat, low in carbs, calories and tastes great and most important of all you are 100% in charge of what goes into your body. This is the first lesson in learning how to “Pay Attention” to what you eat.

Low Carb Diet Cod Loins – A personal favourite for healthy eating

Try it – I double dare you. One month. You can do this. Moderate everything else. Avoid the complex carbs like bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, porridge, flour and so on. And don’t eat red meat (except bacon). Beyond that it’s your call. Eat as much as you need to but don’t be a glutton. It’s that attitude that got you in this mess in the first place and your head is the first place to begin this low carb way of life.

 

 

Only in your head can you begin the process of “Paying Attention”.

Let me know how you get on?

Low Carb Diet Menu for day 01/05/2014

I was feeling quite lazy when it came to eating yesterday. Much like any normal person I can sometimes be a little too busy to mess about with picky food regimes. Today’s menu (below) shows the low carb food I have eaten yesterday. I ate the same things only because I was too busy to bother being different.

Low Carb Cod Loins

The low carb fish was microwaved at 1.5 minute intervals, turned and cooked again. I didn’t count how many minutes it took, I just did this until it was cooked. It’s not rocket science and you don’t need permission to be smart for yourself. The sauce was out of a squeezy bottle and the salad was prepared by a supermarket in England called the Co-Op. How lazy can low carb and low fat dieting be right?

Seriously though – let me remind you all that I am not on a diet because I am fat. My weight loss is merely a by-product of the regime my doctor has put me on. I am forced to eat this way on doctors orders. I have been eating like this for some three months now, (I began this low carb diet on 31st January this year when I weighed 117.5kg). I am due to be reviewed in a couple of weeks but after three months I now weigh 107.5kg. My main worry is the blood tests. What impact on me will there be if the doctor tells me the regime had not affected the unusual blood results I have been producing. What if she tells me I am going to have to go on the liver transplant list? What happens to somebody who has a liver transplant? What happens if none can be found to match my specific type? It’s not about dieting for me. I have a far more powerful motivator. Fear!

This is what I ate yesterday. I enter everything in Fat Secret which is a food diary app that can apply to most common dieting styles like calorie counting or low fat or low GI etc. You will have to spend a moment looking at the numbers for them to pop out at you. I am not gonna treat you like you’re stupid. I just did a copy/paste from my site.

These are the totals for the day:
Fat Carbs Sugar Net C Prot Cals
62.28 25.79 8.25 17.90 164.71 1344

Breakfast 15.36 3.05 2.29 2.96 15.19 218

Tesco Chestnut Mushrooms
92 g
0.46 0.37 0.18 0.28 1.66 15

Scrambled Egg (Whole, Cooked)
2 large
14.90 2.68 2.11 2.68 13.53 203

Lunch 6.14 8.30 2.40 6.30 51.04 307

Co-Op Sweet & Crunchy Salad
1 pack
0.40 7.00 1.40 5.00 1.30 40

Hellmann’s French Dressing
1 portion, 15 g
4.00 1.30 1.00 1.30 0.50 43

Steamed or Poached Cod
220 g
1.74 49.24 224

Dinner 7.56 8.30 2.40 6.30 91.32 491

Steamed or Poached Cod
400 g
3.16 89.52 408

Hellmann’s French Dressing
1 portion, 15 g
4.00 1.30 1.00 1.30 0.50 43

Co-Op Sweet & Crunchy Salad
1 pack
0.40 7.00 1.40 5.00 1.30 40

Snacks/Other 33.22 6.14 1.16 2.34 7.16 328

Brazil Nuts
50 g
33.22 6.14 1.16 2.34 7.16 328

Low Carb Diet Menu For A Day 28/04/14

My weight has been fairly static recently. But having kept it off I am confident the downward trend will recommence any time soon. I’ll keep you posted.

A short note on the subject of those horrible sugar cravings: I manage to get rid of my sugar cravings by giving in to them. Don’t deny that you want sugar. Just eat some chocolate (try a small bar from a corner shop instead of a giant slab from the supermarket). I find that when I’ve done that I can say to myself “right then, no more until next month”. And dumb as it sounds it is actually working. I have given myself permission to admit that I have these cravings and to admit that I called them “treats” when in truth they were just “poisons” for my poorly liver. So after accepting this truth I found it easier to handle and easier to quit for the month, knowing I could give in next month if I had to. Feel free to see my constant weight loss since January if you think I’m kidding. My diet is all in my mind. Bet yours is too.

Anyway here is an example low carb diet menu for a day

My Food Diary: Today, Monday 28 April 2014. The first set of numbers is the totals for the day.

Fat Carbs Sugar Net C Prot Cals
29.49 47.88 25.39 40.43 166.80 1156

Breakfast 15.78 7.85 2.11 7.85 16.72 245

Scrambled Egg (Whole, Cooked)
2 large
14.90 2.68 2.11 2.68 13.53 203

Sainsbury’s Chunky Vegetables
1.1 x 100g
0.88 5.17 5.17 3.19 42

Lunch 9.50 9.60 3.40 7.60 39.01 282

Co-Op Sweet & Crunchy Salad
1 pack
0.40 7.00 1.40 5.00 1.30 40

John West Tuna Chunks in Brine
138 g
1.10 36.71 156

Hellmann’s French Dressing
2 x 1 portion, 30 g
8.00 2.60 2.00 2.60 1.00 86
Add Item

Dinner 4.21 16.43 7.88 10.98 104.07 538

Steamed or Poached Cod
445 g
3.52 99.59 454

Tesco Pak Choi
175 g
0.35 3.85 2.10 2.62 30

Turnips
130 g
0.13 8.36 4.94 6.06 1.17 36

Sweet Red Peppers
70 g
0.21 4.22 2.94 2.82 0.69 18
Add Item

 

Nothing complicated. No starving myself. All very easy to cook. Breakfast was cooked in a small frying pan without the need for oil. Lunch came in a can and a bag and a squeezy bottle. Whilst dinner took the most time to prepare I had to chop a pepper, peel and chop half a turnip and chop 2 pak coi pieces. Unwrap the cling film off my cod and place them all in my stove top steamer (cheap and simple). I steamed for about 20-30 minutes.

Some of you have been asking me to say what low carb or low fat foods I eat through a whole day instead of just putting down example meals. Well generally speaking I eat what I want within reason. All I do that’s different to you is that I am bothered enough to record everything in FatSecret. A great little app. Here’s a pdf of that menu above Food Diary 280414

Low Carb Cod Loins

Low Carb Diet Menu for a Day

Lost weight again. Now down to 108.9kg. I’ve lost 8.6kg since February. Some of you have been asking me to say what low carb or low fat foods I eat through a whole day instead of just putting down example meals. Well all I do is record everything in FatSecret. A great little app. Here’s an example of a day’s menu for me:

To read the numbers below remember this pattern — Fat – Carbs – Sugar – Prot – Cals

Breakfast Totals 15.78 7.85 2.11 16.72 245

Scrambled Egg (Whole, Cooked)
2 large — 14.90 – 2.68 – 2.11 – 13.53 – 203

Sainsbury’s Chunky Vegetables
1.1 x 100g — 0.88 – 5.17 – 0.00 – 3.19 – 42

Lunch 14.54 – 8.32 – 2.30 – 36.98 – 329

Tesco Lighter Than Light Mayonnaise 1 tbsp, 15 ml
0.80 – 0.90 – 0.90 – 0.00 – 14

Co-Op Sweet & Crunchy Salad 1 pack
0.40 – 7.00 – 1.40 – 1.30 – 40

Smoked or Cured Ham 160 g
13.34 – 0.42 – 0.00 – 35.68 – 275

Dinner 16.74  – 15.50 – 6.75 – 43.61 – 384 (Shared this meal with my Wife)

Tesco Chicken Breast Fillets (130g) 1 breast, 130 g
3.40 – 0.00 – 0.00 – 37.40 – 180

Tesco Pak Choi 100 g
0.20 – 2.20 – 0.00 – 1.50 – 17

Tesco Closed Cup Mushrooms 50 g
0.25 – 0.20 – 0.10 – 0.90 – 8

Aubergine 100 g
0.19 – 5.70 – 2.35 – 1.01 – 24

Tesco Red Pepper 1/2 pepper, 50 g
0.20 – 3.20 – 3.10 – 0.50 – 18

Philadelphia Simply Stir 100 g
12.50 – 4.20 – 1.20 – 2.30 – 137
If you must snack – try nuts; Brazil, Hazel Almond almost any kind will do. They are great low carb value for money! Or if yoghurt is your thing how about a plain greek style with a teaspoon of berries like raspberries or blueberries. It gives me that surgaryness I crave whilst being kind to my liver.

Go for it, you know you want to.